American English Phoneme Representation (Windows Embedded CE 6.0)

1/6/2010

This is a brief introduction to the use and implementation of the SAPI phoneme representations.

Symbolic and Numerical Representation

Application developers can create pronunciations for words that are not currently in the lexicon by using the English phonemes represented in the following table. The phoneme set is composed of a symbolic phonetic representation (SYM).

The application developer will be able to enter the SYM representation to create the pronunciation using the XML PRON tag, or by creating a new lexicon entry. Each phoneme entry should be space delimited.

Tag Description

PRON SYM

Tag used to insert a pronunciation using symbolic representation.

Example: pronunciation for "hello":

<PRON SYM = "h eh l ow"/>

For improved accuracy, the primary (1), secondary (2) stress markers, and the syllabic markers (-) can be added to the pronunciation.

Example: pronunciation for "hello" using the primary stress (1) and syllabic (-) markers:

<PRON SYM = "h eh - l ow 1"/>

American English Phoneme Table

SYM Example PhoneID

-

syllable boundary (hyphen)

1

!

Sentence terminator (exclamation mark)

2

&

word boundary

3

,

Sentence terminator (comma)

4

.

Sentence terminator (period)

5

?

Sentence terminator (question mark)

6

_

Silence (underscore)

7

1

Primary stress

8

2

Secondary stress

9

aa

father

10

ae

cat

11

ah

cut

12

ao

dog

13

aw

foul

14

ax

ag0

15

ay

bite

16

b

big

17

ch

chin

18

d

dig

19

dh

then

20

eh

pet

21

er

fur

22

ey

ate

23

f

fork

24

g

gut

25

h

help

26

ih

fill

27

iy

feel

28

jh

joy

29

k

cut

30

l

lid

31

m

mat

32

n

no

33

ng

sing

34

ow

go

35

oy

toy

36

p

put

37

r

red

38

s

sit

39

sh

she

40

t

talk

41

th

thin

42

uh

book

43

uw

too

44

v

vat

45

w

with

46

y

yard

47

z

zap

48

zh

pleasure

49

See Also

Concepts

International Phoneme Representation

Other Resources

SAPI Application Development